Continued: North metro letters

Mars misspending

NASA recently sent another vehicle to Mars to determine if there could be life there.

Webster's Encyclopedia, dated 1992, lists the following information about Mars: The atmosphere is 0.15 percent oxygen. Temperatures vary from 148 degrees below zero to 32 degrees above. The atmospheric pressure is equivalent to the pressure 22 miles above Earth.

What kind of life could be there? Why do we spend hundreds of millions of dollars studying Mars when we could be studying space on Earth? Perhaps NASA could someday find a way to prevent cyclones, hurricanes, and tornadoes on earth that kill thousands of people.

JOHN TORGERSON

COON RAPIDS

Give bikes a break

A lot has been printed lately about bicycle riding and behavior of cyclists in general. As a longtime cyclist who uses the streets and highways, I would like to point out some issues that have been brought up by both sides of this issue.

1. The new proposal that lets cyclists roll stop signs and lights is not well founded. They already do it, along with many more cars and trucks. If there is a violation, let the police ticket the violator, but please don't take it upon yourself to be the enforcing body.

2. There is a gold mine for the police if they started ticketing, and there would be a lot more fines for drivers than cyclists if they started enforcing.

3. The parkway was developed as an access to the park system. Just because it has been usurped by drivers because the other systems are clogged by traffic doesn't mean that they can throw their weight around. Intimidating and threatening cyclists puts you in the same category as the 9/11 group -- using large weapons against vulnerable humans. Sorry, but you are terrorists.

4. The speed limit is intended as a top limit for speed on the roadway, not a starting point. The argument that the cyclists don't go the limit is moot. Would you honk, swear at or curb your mother in a car driving 20 mph on the parkway? I think not. Please relax and enjoy the parkway for what it was intended.

BILL O'REILLY

CRYSTAL

Good Samaritan tale

On May 21, I went to the Target store in Brooklyn Center and purchased two small refrigerators. A Target worker wheeled them to the car and we proceeded to try to load them but [they] would not fit. I asked the Target worker if I could leave them and I would call a friend who has a pickup.

Now comes the unbelievable part in this day and age: A young man had his van parked in the aisle way and ran over and told me that he saw me struggling with the boxes and that he would take the boxes home for me in his van. I asked him if he was serious and he said absolutely.

So he lugs the refrigerators to his van and discovered they would not fit, so he asked his wife and three small children to get out of the car, and he then crawled in and lowered the back seat and then he loaded the boxes. He sent his wife and kids into Target to get lunch and [said] ... he would be right back. He followed me to my home and backed into my garage and unloaded the boxes. I tried to give him 10 dollars and he refused.

It amazes me that he offered to do all this not knowing how far away I lived. I told him he must be an angel from heaven sent to help ... and so ends the story of a Good Samaritan.

RALPH VAN BEUSEKOM

BROOKLYN CENTER

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